Chapter 213: Sea Monster

As they spoke, the sharkmen Wu Qingsong had attacked with his soul fragments began to succumb. Some lost consciousness and floated to the surface.

A horrifying scene unfolded. Other sharkmen, sensing no reaction from the incapacitated ones, bit them. Finding no resistance, they quickly tore into their fallen comrades. In just a few minutes, the bodies were shredded into pieces.

The blood drew more sharkmen, gathering around the reef. With their comrades devoured, they turned their attention to the survivors clinging to the overturned hull of the Black Pearl. They even attempted to leap out of the water to pull them down.

Fortunately, the Black Pearl’s hull was high enough that the sharkmen couldn’t quite reach them despite their high jumps.

As Wu Qingsong collected the soul fragments from the dead sharkmen, he observed them closely. Their sizes varied greatly. The largest were five to six meters long, too massive to navigate shallower waters, while the smallest were about Liuli’s height in her normal form, under 1.5 meters. Most were between two to three meters long. Regardless of size, all the sharkmen were fierce and aggressive.

Realizing they couldn’t reach their targets through ordinary means, the sharkmen began picking up various stones and shells from the seabed to hurl at the survivors. Luckily, Eddie had warned them about this. They used the wood intended for the raft to shield themselves or climbed back into the ship’s cabin through the portholes. The stones pounded against the hull with loud thuds, sounding like another storm had hit.

The Black Pearl had fewer than ten crossbows on board. They were smugglers, not pirates, relying on cunning and speed to escape rather than engaging in bloody battles with customs ships. The only formidable weapons were the two ballistae, but with the ship overturned, they were unusable.

Wu Qingsong tried shooting at the sharkmen with a crossbow but quickly realized it was futile. The sharkmen were constantly moving, jumping, swimming, or fighting each other. Even when an arrow hit, their tough, scaly skin deflected it.

“Sharkmen are one of the bigger, fiercer, but dumber types among fishmen. They shouldn’t pose too much of a threat unless there’s a shaman among them,” Captain Eddie said with a strained smile.

Wu Qingsong was about to tell him to stop jinxing them when the sharkmen suddenly scattered. They quickly retreated to deeper waters, leaving the area around the Black Pearl clear. Minutes later, a massive, dark red, nightmarish creature slowly emerged from the sea. Tentacles with enormous suckers latched onto the ship’s hull, dragging its grotesque body toward their position.

“Kraken!” Eddie’s face turned deathly pale. “We’re done for…”

Wu Qingsong stared at the creature’s huge, terrifying eyes and those basin-sized suckers. A chill ran down his spine. He had collected a dozen soul fragments by now. In his panic, he unleashed them all at once on the giant octopus monster.

Its body suddenly went rigid, and then its enormous tentacles thrashed wildly in the air. The items Wu Qingsong and Eddie had moved to the top of the hull were all sent flying. Wu Qingsong and Eddie hurried to the other side of the ship, narrowly avoiding the deadly dance.

In the next moment, a torrent of black venom gushed from the creature’s lower body, sizzling as it hit the deck. The barnacles and algae clinging to the wood began to dissolve with a hissing noise. Wu Qingsong gulped nervously.

The giant suckers spun on the deck like countless circular blades, scraping away the moss and paint to reveal the bare wood underneath. Seconds later, it let out a sharp, agonized scream and slid off the ship, crashing heavily into the sea.

But its tentacles continued to flail wildly, writhing in the air as if it were being burned alive. One sharkman ventured too close and was instantly caught by a tentacle. The Kraken’s pain seemed to be unleashed upon it. Multiple tentacles wrapped around it at once and crushed the sharkman into a bloody pulp that dripped into the sea next to the rocks.

“That monster…” 

Everyone who witnessed this turned pale with fear. Such power might rival that of a mighty mage-warrior, and the black venom could likely harm a person as effectively as a spell.

Fortunately, the creature’s mental strength was weak. It had no defense against the soul fragments’ assault. Otherwise…

“Fishman shaman!” Eddie said in terror.

Wu Qingsong looked in the direction Eddie pointed and saw a dark blue figure swiftly swimming away. As it left, the sharkmen seemed to grow fearful of them. They stopped their futile stone attacks and swam around aimlessly.

“When they come back next time, who knows how many there’ll be…” Eddie muttered in despair.

“Get that raft back together,” Wu Qingsong shouted. “We need to reach that island before they come back!”

The situation was still within his control, but fishmen had been holding their own against the beastpeople and elves since ancient times, not just because of their sheer numbers and breeding capabilities. Staying here meant certain death.

“Are you crazy?” Eddie exclaimed.

“I’m giving everyone a fighting chance. If you want to join, start helping! Otherwise, go sit in the cabin and wait to die! Your choice!”

“But…” Eddie gritted his teeth, then finally cursed under his breath and began directing the sea leopards. “You idiots! If you tie the ropes like that, they’ll come undone with the first wave. Do it like this!”

Wu Qingsong carefully continued gathering soul fragments while moving closer to the giant squid. Its movements were growing weaker. The power within the soul fragments had likely destroyed its feeble brain, killing it. The ongoing muscle contractions were all that kept its body moving.

“Ling! Come help me,” Wu Qingsong called out.

“What do you need me to do?” Ling quickly crawled along the curved keel of the ship.

“Scrape this plank clean and carve a magic circle like this one,” Wu Qingsong said, using his short sword to carve a small template on the plank next to him. “It needs to be big enough to hold this creature’s body.”

Crossing the twenty-odd miles of water with just a raft was impossible. He needed a stronger help.